Sermon 124

SERMO 124

OF THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (5:2-4):
"There is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew."

The healing of the sick at the pool was a foreshadowing.

Most recently, the reading from the Gospel sounded in our ears, and made us attentive to understand what was read. I think this is expected of me, this I promise to explain with all my strength, with the Lord's help. For without a doubt, those miracles did not happen in vain and they symbolized something for our eternal salvation. For the health of the body that was restored to the man, how long did it last? What is your life, says the holy Scripture? It is a vapor that appears for a little while; then it will be banished. Therefore, the health that was restored to that man's body for a time, was a certain prolonging of vapor. Therefore, it is not to be considered a great thing: the health of man is vain. And recall that, brothers, that prophetic and evangelical statement, which is read in the Gospel: All flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh is as the flower of grass; the grass withers, the flower falls; but the Word of the Lord remains forever. The Word of the Lord also gives honor to the grass, and not transient honor: it even grants immortality to the flesh.

This whole life is tribulation. The torturers of the soul are fear and pain.

But first the tribulation of this life passes, from which He grants us help, to whom we said: Give us help from tribulation. For this whole life is indeed a tribulation to those who understand. There are two tormentors of the soul, not tormenting at the same time, but alternating their torment. The names of these two tormentors are fear and pain. When it is well with you, you fear; when it is ill with you, you grieve. Who, in this age, is not deceived by prosperity, is not broken by adversity? In this hay and in the days of hay it is necessary to hold on to the safer path, the Word of God. For when it was said: All flesh is hay, and all the glory of flesh as the flower of hay; the hay withered, the flower fell; as though we should ask: What hope is there for hay? What stability for the flower of hay? But the Word, he says, of the Lord remains forever. And from where, you ask, is the Word of the Lord for me? The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. For the Word of the Lord says to you: Do not reject my promise, because I did not reject your hay. Therefore what the Word of the Lord has granted us, so that we may hold on to Him, lest we pass away with the flower of hay; therefore what it has granted us, that the Word might be made flesh, assuming flesh, not being changed into flesh; remaining and assuming, remaining what it was, assuming what it was not; therefore what it has granted us, that pool also signifies.

The significance of the Probatic Pool. The humility of Christ is not to be refused through pride.

Briefly I say: that water was the Jewish people; the five porticoes, the Law. For Moses wrote five books. Therefore, the water was surrounded by five porticoes, just as that people was constrained by the law. The stirring of the water, in that people, is the passion of the Lord. Whoever descended was healed, but only one: because that is unity. To those who are displeased by the passion of Christ, they are proud; they do not wish to descend, they are not healed. And I, he says, am going to believe in a God in the flesh, a God born of a woman, a God crucified, scourged, dead, wounded, buried? Far be it that I would believe this about God; it is unworthy. Let the heart speak, not the neck. The humility of the Lord seems unworthy to the proud, therefore healing is far from such as these. Do not exalt yourself: if you wish to be healed, descend. Piety should have stood in awe, if Christ were said to be changeable in the flesh. But now the truth commends to you the unchangeable Christ, as far as the Word is concerned. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; not that it sounded and passed away; because the Word was God. Therefore, your God remains unchangeable. O truthful piety: your God remains; do not be afraid, he does not perish; and through him, neither do you perish. He remains, born of a woman; but in the flesh. But the Word also created the mother. He who was before being made, made for himself one in whom to be made. He was an infant; but in the flesh. He sucked, grew, took nourishment, passed through ages, reached youth; but in the flesh. Weary, he slept, but in the flesh. He suffered hunger and thirst; but in the flesh. Captured, bound, scourged, insulted, finally crucified, killed; but in the flesh. Why are you afraid? The Word of the Lord remains forever. Whoever rejects this humility of God does not wish for themselves the healing from the deadly swelling of pride.

Christ assumed mortality to give immortality. The brevity of this life.

Then indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ provided hope for our flesh through His flesh. For He took on what we knew in this earth, what abounded here: to be born and to die. To be born and to die, this abounded here; to rise again and to live forever, this was not here. He found here worthless earthly goods; He brought foreign heavenly ones. If you fear death, love the resurrection. He provided you help from His tribulation: for your salvation had remained in vain. Therefore, brothers, let us recognize and love salvation in this world, which is foreign, that is, eternal, and let us live in this world as foreigners. Let us think of passing through, and we will sin less. Rather, let us give thanks to the Lord our God, because He wanted the last day of this life to be both brief and uncertain. From first infancy to decrepit old age, it is a brief span. What would it have profited him if Adam were to die today, having lived so long? What is long where there is an end? No one recalls yesterday: today is hastening to be overtaken by tomorrow, so that it may pass away. Let us live well in that brief span, so that we may go to where we will not pass away. And now, while we speak, we certainly pass. Words run, and hours fly; thus our age, thus our deeds, thus our honors, thus our misery, thus this our happiness. Everything passes, but let us not fear: the Word of the Lord remains forever. Turned to the Lord, etc.